Quote:
Originally Posted by indes
People would immediately shop in a zone with lower wages, thus lower prices. Why go for a 25$ burger when you can get the same thing for 12$, next zone over.
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I think that really depends. I live and work in downtown Victoria and as such I don't own a vehicle because I don't need one for my commute. Due to not having a vehicle, I also shop, eat, socialize, etc. almost exclusively in downtown Victoria because the effort required for me to get to a Costco or Walmart isn't worth the savings.
Also, wouldn't that cause the businesses in the current zone to lower their prices to compete with the next zone over? Obviously their profit margins would be smaller and some businesses would leave for cheaper zones, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If some of these businesses leave for cheaper zones, it inevitably makes those other zones more economically viable and thus desirable to live in.
I do think you'd initially need to provide some kind of economic subsidy to small businesses in desirable zones to keep them economically competitive and not have a complete corporatization of downtown cores.